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(More customer reviews)This 1956 vision starts with scenes from the recurring nightmare of its time: nuclear war. Oceania and the rest were built on the glowing rubble of that war.
Michael Anderson directed this very compelling version of Winston Smith, the Everyman in that world. It's a world where people searched daily, in their own homes - display of pockets and briefcase content in front of the flickering but unblinking monitor lenses. His work is in rewriting history, to make sure everything turned out the way Big Brother says that it did, and rewriting again tomorrow to conform to the new past.
This movie form of Orwell's book does take some liberties with the story, but none that matter. Winston and his lover are captured. Their thoughtcrime is too serious for matters like trial, and the sentence is immediate. They don't deserve execution in that world, instead they are crushed into Big Brother's mold and converted. This is not a movie with a happy ending. At the time it was written, though, it was a very believable ending.
Some of this story's predictions have some true, in odd ways. Big Brother's cameras track us every day, in banks and stores, along streets and highways, and even from home webcams. Oddly, the futuristic dome-towers of Orwell's Ministry buildings in London also came true in the Swiss Re building, the "gherkin.".
In other ways, though, the 1950s sensibilities of the movie look stale to a modern audience. A newer version of the movie emphasized the grit and damage of a bombed-out world, impoverished by the costs of its weapons, but this was a relatively clean kind of place. The newer production also suggested the physical decay caused by imprisonment under Big Brother, but this Winston came out looking reasonably well-fed and dapper. The 1956 Winston was a crushed man, too, but our eyes have changed since this movie was made.
Still, it's a classic rendering of a classic cautionary story. It's a strong portrayal of a dystopia that could still happen, even though calendar year 1984 has come and gone. And, like Orwell's original, it ends on a note in which hope is not just gone, but forgotten.
//wiredweird
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George Orwell's landmark novel is the basis of this eerie, darkly satiric tale whose futuristic world is divided into three sections following an atomic war. London, capital of the Oceania sector, is where Edmond O'Brien is a clerk for "Big Brother," the totalitarian government that keeps a close watch with all of its subjects. When O'Brien carries on a forbidden love affair with Jan Sterling, officials try to brainwash the couple into abandoning their free will. With Donald Pleasence, Michael Redgrave; directed by Michael Anderson ("Around the World in 80 Days"). 91 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English; scene access. Plays All Regions.This product is manufactured on demand using excellent DVD-R recordable media. Very nice quality and professionally packaged.
